A typical high power, radio frequency (RF) semiconductor device may include one or more input leads, one or more output leads, one or more transistors, bond wires coupling the input lead(s) to the transistor(s), and bond wires coupling the transistor(s) to the output lead(s). The bond wires have inductive reactance at high frequencies, and such inductances are factored into the design of input and output impedance matching circuits for a device. In some cases, input and output impedance matching circuits may be contained within the same package that contains the device's transistor(s). More specifically, an in-package, input impedance matching circuit may be coupled between a device's input lead and a control terminal (e.g., the gate) of a transistor, and an in-package, output impedance matching circuit may be coupled between a current conducting terminal (e.g., the drain) of a transistor and a device's output lead.
In the field of amplifier design, it is often preferable to perform amplification of dual frequency modulated signals. Intermodulation distortion products are generated when these signals are processed by an RF power amplifier due to non-linear input capacitance of the RF power amplifier. These intermodulation distortion products may cause undesirable noise in the RF power amplifier system, and may occur primarily near the baseband frequency of the modulated signals. Due to their high change in input capacitance over voltage, gallium nitride (GaN) RF power amplifiers may experience higher magnitude intermodulation distortion products compared to other technologies such as laterally diffused metal oxide semiconductor (LDMOS) RF power amplifiers. Accordingly, in various amplification systems, and particularly RF power amplifiers, it may be preferable to reduce intermodulation distortion products.